Kara Kennedy, the oldest child of the late Massachusetts Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy, died of a heart attack at the age of 51 at a Washington area health club on Friday. Kara Kennedy, graduated from Tufts University, was a
filmmaker and television producer and accepted Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 for her dad Ted Kennedy on his behalf, shortly before he died. Kara Kennedy was diagnosed in 2003 with lung cancer and beat the hideous disease. Sadly, she has passed away and far too soon. More at the LA Times. Kara Kennedy is survived by her children Grace and Max, her mother Joan, her brothers Ted Kennedy Jr. and Patrick Kennedy, as well as her stepmother Victoria Reggie Kennedy and stepsiblings Curran and Caroline Raclin.

Kara Kennedy had herself battled lung cancer: In 2003, doctors removed a malignant tumor. Patrick Kennedy said that his sister loved to exercise, but that he thinks her cancer treatment “took quite a toll on her and weakened her physically.”

Continuing the sad and tragic news, Eleanor Mondale Poling, a former TV and radio personality and the daughter of former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, died Saturday in Prior Lake, MN at the age of 51 from brain cancer. She had stints at Minneapolis radio station WLOL-FM, on cable television at E! Entertainment and ESPN and network TV on CBS’ “This Morning,” . Personally from dealing with this in my own family, I know how terrible brain cancer can be. She is survived by her husband Chan Poling and her parents, her brothers, Ted Mondale, a former Minnesota state senator, and William H. Mondale, a former assistant attorney general of Minnesota.

The cause was brain cancer, which she had been battling since 2005, her family said.

“She was a wonderful daughter,” Mr. Mondale said in a telephone interview from his daughter’s home, where relatives and friends had gathered. “A great spirit, a lot of courage. She fought this stuff almost six years now, and never a whimper.”